It’s hard to say you enjoy a book about a dark, twisted killer. That being said, this was absolutely an interesting read. Sam Little is not a name that I was familiar with before reading this book, but I’ll remember him now. He was a mad who preyed upon the vulnerable and strangled and killed them. He had a creepy neck fetish and abnormal/non-traditional sexual desires.

The dramatizations of the murders were well done. The author does a good job articulating the stories while still depicting Sam as the evil person that he is. Lauren also does a great job sharing the legal side of things (and Sam’s incredibly lucky way of avoiding punishment for his crimes.

The book had no central focus. It should either have been all about the author’s experience of investigating and interviewing this monstrous serial killer or about the law enforcement officers who captured him. However, by jumping around from her life, to the lives of the victims and to the life of the killer, the book lost all of its flow. There are also several factual items in the book regarding the Green River killer, Gary Ridgway, and Ted Bundy that are incorrect. These items should have been left out of the book altogether or better researched. Readers of true crime will immediately recognize these errors. Overall, I cannot recommend this book. What should have been a very interesting and compelling read turned into a disarrange jumble of facts, reminiscence and speculation.

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for the arc. I'm leaving this review voluntarily.

A must read horrifying documentary on the most prolific serial killer.

Sam Little is a serial killer and a total psychopath. He has admitted to nearly ninety deaths, making him the most prolific serial murderer. However, he was able to get away with his actions for years because he flew beneath detection. This book is not for the faint of heart since it contains unsettling narratives of these visits and phone calls that include assault, racism, molestation, rape, alcohol, drugs, mental illness, and suicides. This villain and his deed will completely horrify you. At the conclusion of the book, there are images and dates of those who perished to Little for reference, and I experienced shivers when I came across those pages. It made you realise that this is a true story.

This book was very interesting. It's horrifying to think that someone could have a rap sheet like his including many violent crimes and serve almost no time for them. The author says that at this time it wasn't viewed that prostitutes (especially Black prostitutes) could not be victimized. I would like to think that this has changed. Samuel Little is an example of the existence of evil. I hope that the time spent with him trying to understand his motivations helps law enforcement to stop something like this from happening again.
Thanks to Net Galley for the book to review.

“The most common question asked of me is simply what was it like? What was it like to spend time with a psychopath can be summed up in this single, simple story for me…”

Behold The Monster is a powerful true crime book about America’s most prolific serial killer, Samuel Little.

This was a truly fascinating book, the author did a fantastic job with it. It definitely shows how much time and energy she spent working on this book. It was written with true respect for the victims of Samuel Little, they were more than just victims, Jillian descriptions bring them back to life.

This is an absolute must read to anyone interested in true crime, serial killers or in Samual Little. I highly recommend reading this, it was brilliant!

It also includes Little’s drawings of the victims, some with their real photos.

Thank you to @netgalley and @sourcebooks for providing me an ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review.

💫 Publication Date: July 18, 2023 💫

“Behold the Monster” is a very lengthy, very detailed, true crime novel about the horrific acts committed by serial killer, Samuel Little, and the many female victims that died at this monster’s hands. While I applaud the author for her hard work and dedication to bringing this little-known story to light, I did struggle to get through this one. I prefer less investigative procedural elements and more insight into the killer’s mind. That said, the author did take liberties pertaining to the victims’ final moments, but I didn’t mind this at all. It helped to make the victims “real” for me, reinforcing the gruesome nature of this killer’s crimes.

Sam Little is one of my ( I wouldn’t call him a favorite or interesting) but something about his story always gave me pause. I never understood how someone could get away with murder for so long. He caught my attention 2 years ago and I believe this book gives his victims their voices back. It allows their stories to get out.

I really struggled to get through this book, but I'm also not one to not finish a book either. There was so much unnecessary detail in this book, like a high school student trying to make word count for an essay they weren't interest in writing. The content matter was interesting and Samuel Little was a sick and twisted man. But, the dramatization of the victims attacks, the incorrect pronoun uses for a transgendered victim, and the constant use of the word "ho," so describe these poor women was very disrespectful to them and their families. If you wanted to use the language that Samuel Little used to recount these attacks and murders, that I recommend using quotes or providing the accurate dialogue from the conversations/interviews with him. If the book had stuck to the facts, instead of random tangents that added nothing to the story, it likely would have been an easier (well, obviously its gruesome), read.

The facination with serial killers takes on a new viewpoint with this startling account of obsession and detective work. I enjoyed the style of writing, as we follow the investigation of Jillian Lauren. We experience with her the pull to find justice for the victims - a pull that turns into almost relationsips with those slain by Little. If you love serial killer podcasts and stories, this is a good one to add to the list!

I give this book 3.5 stars. I love true crime, I consume it in a variety of medias so I'm very familiar with the genre. For me, it was very hard to follow. The constant bouncing back and forth made it hard for me to follow at points. The story itself was fascinating - I'm surprised I've never heard of considering how horrific his crimes were. But it took me much longer to read than I had planned. I truly wanted to love this book but the writing really made it hard for me to do so.

***** I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I wanted to love this book. I am a big fan of true crime. It has the title and the information to be great. It just wasn’t. I struggled to keep reading. It didn’t hold my interest. They way it was written bounced around so badly that I would get lost and wasn’t able to follow.

I read the True Crime genre fairly frequently, can’t say I ‘enjoy’ it, rather I find it interesting and satisfying assuming the perpetrator comes to justice. I remember this particular case when it was in the news. All the same this was a painful read mainly because this monster’s, murders, and yes, the book is aptly titled, spanned decades.

I did not care for the author’s writing, many times I felt there was an assumption that the reader already knew facts we did not. I also did not like the way the book skips around time-wise, I felt it could have been better organized and less confusing.

I liked that the author interviewed the murderer at length prior to his death, in the process becoming ‘his buddy’. Hats off to her for being able to stomach that for the sake of telling the victims’ stories.

My first impression of this was that it really is an exceptionally written book. Jillian Lauren's brusque, gritty, no-holds-barred, borderline stream-of-consciousness-lite writing style really worked for the subject matter, elevating BEHOLD THE MONSTER from a run-of-the-mill true crime title into something much darker and more absorbing. The only reason it's getting three stars is because it broke two of my cardinal true crime writing rules: 1) Lauren's dramatized record of Samuel Little's victims' end-of-life moments crossed into slightly inappropriate territory for me, as both a reader and true crime obsessive -- obviously there is not a single person on this planet who could presume to know exactly what these women were thinking or feeling when he murdered them, and I'm not a fan when writers choose to represent these moments on the page for the sake of a narrative rather than, you know, maybe just not; and 2) Whole. Pages. Of. Court. Transcripts.

Intense, horrific, mind boggling. You could use a hundred other words to describe the feelings of this book. It was an interesting and very detailed book that our author very clearly knew a ton about. The details you read are not for the faint of heart. I think it was super informative and I appreciated the look you’re given into this world of chaos and violence. Definitely give this one a read if you’re a fan of true crime.

This reads like a first draft. This writing is riddled with random sentences inserted into paragraphs and crude, and sometimes vulgar, word choice. It rambles at points with a plethora of useless detail that weigh down the reading. At times this seemed the writer intended to write an autobiography or memoir rather than a true crime piece. I am a fan of true crime and understand it is a difficult genre to work in. But this was so laborious to read.. I very, very rarely give up on a book but I did so after reading about 40% of this one. The author even insinuated that her family founded ShopRite. Her family may have been A stakeholder but ShopRite was founded by 8 different grocery owners who formed a co-op. In any event, I would recommend seeking a different true crime title; this one is probably the worst true crime piece I have ever read.

This book was something I discovered outside of what I normally read. It was part memoir part something I cant think of the word for. It was interesting. The author interviewed the most prolific serial killer in history of US. The stories told and the grief. It was a very interesting read.

This book gave excellent insight into the crimes that Samuel Little committed. Before reading I had never heard of this man but now I can’t believe I never had since he killed so many people. The book is written partially from the writer, Jillian Lauren’s point of view as she was able to interview Little while he was in prison. I kind of wish the book stayed from her point of view and she didn’t fictionalize the events. I understand she discusses this in the beginning of the book and that it helped convey some of the stories better. I also found some of the events hard to read as they go into the details of the murders and Samuel Little’s thoughts. The book was interesting and helped gain insight into the mind of the killer but at some points was kind of boring and could’ve been shortened. If you are into true crime and don’t know much about Samuel Little then I’d suggest picking this one up.

I’m new to the true crime obsession but I really liked this one. I wasn’t familiar with the case but was quickly engrossed by the writing style. I would recommend for anyone who enjoys these type of books.

3.5 stars
Serial killer Samuel Little may not be as well known as Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer, but his crimes are no less horrific.  Little confessed to murdering over 90 women, and author Jillian Lauren heard the gruesome details in her jailhouse interviews with the murderer.  Along with the events that she recorded and witnessed, Lauren also adds fictionalized accounts from the victims, and this is where I had issues with the book.  I understand why she chose to do this (she explains in her introduction), but it just felt so over-the-top at times, which would have been fine for a fiction book (something she said she originally wanted to write).  As a true crime junkie, I appreciated the nonfiction aspect, I just wish there had been more of that and less fiction.

This is a true story about the serial killer Sam Little and Jillian Lauren’s interviews with him. The author does use some liberties as she explains the victims interactions with Sam. The numerous interviews she had with him and the victims families probably provided a pretty clear picture of each victim. It is disgusting to see how many times he was arrested for some of these cases but fairly quickly released to kill again! He chose women who would not be missed, loners, prostitutes, drug addicts, the lowest of society, so that there would be no massive search for him. Thanks to Detective Mitzi Roberts for recognizing that Little most likely had many more victims and Texas Ranger Holland for getting Little to spill his secrets. The story tends to jump around chronologically. The author spent a lot of time researching and interviewing Little, the victims families and the few survivors Certainly makes one wonder what causes such deviant behaviors. There is a list of the 93 victims at the end of the book. Sam Little drew pictures of the women and gave details. Many have yet to be found/identified. If you are a true crime enthusiast, you should read this book.